On this date in 1979, the only anonymous photograph to win a Pulitzer Prize captured nine Kurdish rebels and two of the Shah’s policemen executed by firing squad in revolutionary Iran.

This shot, one of a series taken of the event with the permission of the judge who condemned the men to immediate death in a half-hour trial at the Sanandaj airfield, ran the next day in the Iranian paper Ettela’at, whose editor prudently kept the photographer’s identity secret. Within two days, the stunning photo had rocketed around the world.

It won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography the following spring, still credited anonymously.

Two years ago, the Wall Street Journalrevealed — with the photographer’s permission — the identity of the man who shot this indelible image: Jahangir Razmi, who had gone on to a career as one of Iran’s top photographic journalists. He came to New York to collect the prize 27 years late.

13 thoughts on “1979: Eleven by a Firing Squad in Iran”

Because they were terrorists and had killed several innocent people.
Search and ask about terrorists killings, explosions, beheadings and all kinds of crimes committed by those Savakis(Shah Security Service), MKO Terrorists and Democrat Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
After that you will ask them:
WHY????

The only good thing mullahs ever did…these neo-nazi-communists deserved nothing but a bullet in the head…we have one of these terrorist rats in Montreal, Dr Amir Khadir…wish the mullahs send a suicide bomber to rid us of the vile scumbag!

Iran has not attacked another country in over 200 years. By contrast the USA has attacked Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Grenada, Nicaragua, Iraq (twice) Panama, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, Cuba, Somalia, Syria, and, is the only country in the history of the Earth to drop an atomic bomb on two civilian-populated cities.
Ming, your comments illustrate your gross lack of intellect.